The technology relates to a traveling control system for vehicle.
As a traveling assist technique including automatic driving for a vehicle such as an automobile, a following travel control technique has been developed recently. The following travel control performs a control to thereby cause an own vehicle to travel along a target course or to follow a preceding vehicle. When the following travel is performed automatically, it is necessary, upon passing a point provided with a traffic signal, to detect which of a red signal color, a yellow signal color, and a green signal color is indicated by the traffic signal, and to so perform a control that the own vehicle is able to safely stop, start, or pass in accordance with the detected signal color. The point provided with the traffic signal may be, for example but not limited to, an intersection.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2005-119413 discloses a traveling assistance technique described below. According to the technique disclosed in JP-A No. 2005-119413, information of a traffic signal is acquired from a traffic control center and a signal color indicated by a traffic signal at a subsequent intersection is recognized thereby. Further, braking force is generated for the vehicle, on a condition that a distance to the subsequent intersection is equal to or less than a stopping distance of a vehicle and that the signal color to be indicated by the traffic signal when the vehicle passes the intersection is “red” or “yellow to red”. The foregoing situation in which the color to be indicated by the traffic signal when the vehicle passes the intersection is “yellow to red” refers to a situation in which the vehicle passes the intersection in a predetermined period before the traffic signal makes a transition in signal color from yellow to red. This makes it possible to so perform a control as to prevent the vehicle from hurriedly passing the intersection in a case where the vehicle is to pass the intersection.